donniebaseball23 writes: There can be no denying that the rise of smartphones and tablets has had a major impact on the gaming business. The prevalence of free and 99-cent apps has changed consumers' perception of value. Mike Capps, president of Gears of War developer Epic Games, told IndustryGamers, "If there's anything that's killing us [in the traditional games business] it's dollar apps. How do you sell someone a $60 game that's really worth it... They're used to 99 cents. As I said, it's an uncertain time in the industry. But it's an exciting time for whoever picks the right path and wins."

It is not just games that are affected. My father and I coded up a nifty little client manager app for the Android. After about 3 months of coding in our spare time we put it on the market for $5......I think 2 people bought it in a months time.....then we lowered the price to $0.99 and a few more people bought it. After only making $20 off of it we tried the ads route...no one touched the ads so no money was made there. Better yet some were insulted that we would charge money or when it was free puttin